PRELUDE TO WAR

we built great new dams which brought the miracle of electricity to millions of our people these were some of our accomplishments but there were others not so creditable turned our backs on the League of Nations we passed the tariff act to set a higher wall of isolation around us we encouraged lawlessness with the farce of prohibition but in spite of these mistakes we never had a thought of losing our free institutions John Q public still ran the country he had his choice of voting for doing Wilke Roosevelt or anybody else in Germany they had the choice of voting for Hitler Hitler or Hitler over here john q still read what he please and although he heard of books being burned in other countries he would have laughed if anyone had told him his books would ever be burned [Music] non Sunday if he does like it John Q went to Anna church he pleased [Music] [Music] most of all he got a kick out of seeing his kids go [Music] the average American was quite unconscious of the fact that some people had this in line for the Little John McHugh [Music] yes while that children were being trained to kill John Q's kids were giving their pennies to help them have life [Applause] [Music] and when we saw these men in the newsreels quite often we learned to us they looked like characters in a musical comedy but they weren't coming they weren't funny they were deadly serious they were out for world conquest and what made it doubly serious was that there were 70 million Japanese 45 million Italians and 80 million Germans all hopped up to the same idea their leaders told them that they were supermen Peron for the matches confident the master race destined to rule all other peoples on earth take a good look at these humorless men these were to be the rulers of the ruling race bears blindly and you will attain your rightful place in the world all the people will be your slaves that's what they promised them that Americans Chinese Russian South Americans all free peoples would work for them and make them rich [Music] we shall restore the glory that was wrong [Applause] today we ruled Germany tomorrow the world the Pacific is our it was inevitable that these countries should gang up on us the little fellow is our pal Kurisu who smile his way into our hearts in December 1941 here he and his friends are busy carving up the world in advance staking out their claims take a good look at these claims here was the Italy that Mussolini took over in 1922 an almost his first act was to tell the Italians they were the rightful owners of Corsica nice savoia Albania Tunisia Ethiopia and a land corridor linking it with Libya later on he had an even bigger dream the old Roman Empire as it existed nearly 2,000 years ago to dominate all the lands adjoining the Mediterranean mara nostra our see they called it just as the ancient Romans did as for the Japanese they had some ambitions to by 1920 they had grabbed off Formosa Korea from the southern half of the island of Sakhalin then Baron D XI Tanaka the Prime Minister carefully set down Japanese aims in a document called the Tanaka memorial it was presented to the Emperor July 25th 1927 [Music] here was their dream Manchuria for raw materials China for manpower then a triumphant march through Indochina Siam Burma India the East Indies burn on through Australia New Zealand and in the north all they claimed was that part of Russia east of Lake Baikal that was to be the new order in Asia [Music] then the Japs would move eastward to crush the United States and really start their co-prosperity sphere now take a look at the bike the Maxie's reserved for themselves here's the Germany Hitler walked into and here's what he wanted first Europe under his complete political or economic control leaving new Cellini a share of the loot if he behaved himself then the drive to the east through the rich oil lands of Iran the knee ride into India another push south through Africa then from Dakar jump off to meet the honorary Aryans who were to move in on South America through the Pacific at the same time start across from the Scandinavian countries to hook up with his buck-toothed pals coming over from Siberia to join in the conquest of the United States there it is gents all they left us with shangri-la and they claim that too if they knew where it was they had a chance listen you know when war comes between Japan and the United States I shall not be content merely to occupy Guam the Philippines Hawaii and San Francisco I look forward to dictating the peace to the United States in the White House at Washington Yamamoto wrote those words on January of 1941 yes the conquering [ __ ] army down Pennsylvania Avenue that was the final goal you will see what they did to the men and women of Nanking Hong Kong and Manila imagine the field day they'd enjoy they'd marched to the streets of Washington but before striking a preliminary step was necessary from Berlin from Rome from Tokyo the campaign started propaganda to confuse divide soften up their intended victims put them on the defensive scream you're abused shout your oppressed the world's wrong you're right if you speak it loud enough and often enough they'll believe above all use their free press and their free speech to destroy them they've ins wrong they demanded living room our lands are overcrowded but at the same time they gave prizes to mothers who bore the most sums [Applause] they brought together large groups of young men and young girls for human beating one of their leaders wrote [Music] of course the children from this assembly line belong to the state to be scientifically trained for conquest [Applause] [Applause] [Music] another how was the lack of raw material they claimed they were the hapless and we were the hands but how did this supposed lack they built up the greatest war machines the world has ever known [Music] these are the published figures from the German military budget actually between 1933 and 1939 Hitler's program of rearmament cost more than 80 billion dollars the Natchez alone assembled a striking force over 30 Panzer divisions 70 motorized divisions a hundred and forty infantry divisions plus the Luftwaffe the world's largest air force and they had no raw materials think of the bread the automobiles the good things of life at the German Italian Japanese leaders might have given their people if they expend this money for peace instead of war you know what billions we are now spending to match their military force no no these arguments were all smoke screens when war came the democracies proved to be the have-nots and our enemies the half and when Moore came where did it come [Music] that date September 18 of 1931 a date we should remember as well as December 7 1941 or on that date in 1931 the world we are now fighting began the place was Manchuria the northernmost province of China six thousand miles from San Francisco Manchuria the first objective in the Tanaka plan by September eighteenth the Japanese who by treaty patrolled the southern Manchurian railway and secretly and illegally increased their Garrison's on the Korean Manchurian border an entire Japanese army was assembled conveniently equipped for a winter campaign all they needed was an excuse they made their own at 10:30 that night just after the mutton Express had passed by the section of track was dynamited causing damage to one rail and two fish plates [Music] Japan's honor had been violated the Japanese railroad garrison launched a coordinated attack on the barracks of the sleeping Chinese army at Makkah slaughter was appalling by midnight the conveniently-placed Japanese army poured across the Korean border and the first open act of aggression the invasion of Manchuria was on in four days they had occupied the whole of southern Manchuria and shortly after Manchuria became Manchu cool a puppet state with an obedience to John the throne Henry Paul Yi a weakling whom the Japanese had prepared for the job the seven years of women in the song in Washington Henry L Stimson men's Secretary of State now Secretary of War sent out a blistering denunciation of latech the League of Nations sent a committee of five headed by Lord Lytton and including our own general Frank McCoy to Manchuria to investigate in October of 1932 the committee issued its report we found that the Japanese occupation of this large part of China was not justified on the ground of self-defense and that the new state which had been set up with the Japanese protectorate rather than a genuine case of Manchurian self-determination shortly after the league condemned Japan as an aggressor nation because a mother of common knowledge that defense policy is fundamentally inspired by a genuine desire to guarantee peace in the parties and to contribute to the maintenance of peace throughout the world Japan however impossible to vary by the assembly in answer the Japanese delegates knowing there were no guns behind this condemnation smiled took up their briefcases marched out of the league more than Manchuria was dead collective security was dead the green light had been given the aggressors we in the rest of the world knew that these aggressors should be stopped and punished but we were unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices to back up that opinion it was impossible to convince a farm boy in Iowa for a driver of a London bus or a waiter in a Paris cafe that he should go to war because of a mud hut in Manchuria yet the subsequent course of history makes it clear that that incident so many miles away is one of the main reasons that you and millions of others are in uniform today the Jets had Manchuria phase number one of the Tanaka plan was completed phase number two a conquest of China in 1932 without warning the Japs attacked the Chinese city of Shanghai [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] here they met such stubborn resistance that they had to pour more than 75,000 troops in the local battle before capture in the city this resistance made them decide to ship their campaign to the Lord and in 1933 they added the province of gay oil to Manchuria yes the Japs launched the second phase of the Tanaka plan but they had yet to finish it a United Nation stands against them under the inspired leadership of general Chiang kai-shek the Chinese people fought them still fight on meantime one of Japan's partners what helped us people were they planning to bomb slot/drive into slavery Hitler was not yet ready but Mussolini was Mussolini had to be his people were growing restless fascism hadn't produced the heaven on earth that he had promised them so he pulled the old trick of launching a foreign war to divert attention from troubles at home it's almost Cellini beat his chest like Tarzan and looked around for a worthy foe he found one Ethiopia good country for the beginning of a glorious Empire its army had no machine-gun its army had no tanks its army did have an Air Force exactly one old Arab Lee one airplane against the nation which had developed the new theory of the total air war of the Blitz which would wipe out cities destroy civilians man woman and child in October of 1935 following the Japanese example an incident was provoked at the little settlement of war wall near the border of Ethiopia an Italian Somaliland Italy's honor had been violated refusing any arbitration Mussolini moved the whole might of his army through the Suez Canal to overrun the undefended country Ethiopia's emperor haile selassie appeared before the League of Nations I must still fight on until my tardy allies appear and if they never come I say to you without bitterness the West will perish members of the league half-heartedly stopped trading with Italy but refused the only thing that will stop any aggressor force Ethiopia was left to her some native leaders came to pledge their allegiance the people of Ethiopia with their Spears and bare hands faced the guns in the tanks of the invaders fighting desperately and gallantly to save their country from Congress they thought and they died but in the end there could be but one result might trialed italy conquered ethiopia many of our elected leaders warned us of danger without a declaration of war and without warning or justification of any kind civilians including vast numbers of women and children are being ruthlessly murdered with bombs from the air but we were still hypnotized by the fact that two broad oceans stood between us and the rest of the world we didn't realize at the time when monks were needed to span these oceans was end that the steamship had cooked these months two days and that now the whole Earth's surface could be covered in the space of hours yes we were a nation that wanted peace we hadn't yet learned that peace for us depends on peace for all nobody would run the risk of war because of some mud huts and barren Plains in Ethiopia any more than we would run the risk for some similar huts and plains in Manchuria correctly interpreting our attitude the aggressors were all assure that they could get what they wanted Japan had started on her March of cuntmas Italy had begun her new empire and now the third gangster what about him we've take him up in our next film and show how he joined his partners and put in his bid for this is what we are fighting freedom's oldest enemy the passion of the few to rule the many this isn't just a war this is the free people's life-and-death struggle against those who had put them back into slavery the free peoples of America and Britain of Russia and China of Canada Australia and all the 30 United Nations that have sworn that man shall still remain free that is the cause in which we fight we lose it and we lose everything our homes the jobs we want to go back to the books we read the very food we eat the hopes we have for our kids the kids themselves they would be ours anymore that's what's at stake it's us or them the chips are down two worlds stand against each other one must die one must live 170 years of freedom decrees our answer [Music] [Applause] [Music]